Samurai Warriors 4
Samurai Warriors 4 (戦国無双4, Sengoku Musou 4) is the fourth main entry in the Samurai Warriors series. Plans for its development was first revealed on Hisashi Koinuma's Twitter and its console availability was later announced at SCEJA Press Conference 2013. The title is being made to celebrate the series's tenth anniversary. Gameplay Similar to Chronicles, players must select two characters for each battle and can freely switch between them as they fight by pressing Select. These traits are distinguished by the face icon present over each character's portrait during selection. Specific team combinations may unlock new missions for each stage. If two player co-op is being used, the second player is assigned to the second character chosen before the stage. Players lose the ability to switch between characters while working together. The character who picks up the weapon box from fallen generals in battle is the one who earns it and KO counters are kept separated. A new feature called the "Hyper Attack" ("Shinsoku Action" in Japanese) is a dashing attack that characters can use to clear large crowds of enemies quickly. These attacks can be performed by reversing the usual charge attack combo order (i.e. , , as opposed to , , ). Hyper attacks replace the C1s for all characters. Certain characters are assigned the "Hyper" moveset type. Hyper Attacks are powerful, but can be deflected by guarding and may temporarily stun player characters while also being overall ineffective against generals. When an enemy general is low on health, characters can perform a reworked version of the "Killing Array" (in Japanese) dubbed as a "Mighty Strike" when flashes on their staggered or stunned targeted general. Similar to Warriors: Legends of Troy, these attacks have unique animations; all returning characters use their prior deadlock attack animations for this move. Mighty Strikes are negated if the player misses the button prompt. Weapon deadlocks, rolling and dashing attacks have been removed. Meanwhile, the Spirit Evade from Sengoku Musou 3: Empires has been reworked into being a backward sidestep with afterimages, and old dashing attack animations are used for the Spirit Evade counterattacks (press during it) which provide heavy hyper armor during the execution and will always stagger upon connecting (allowing for a free Mighty Strike prompt when they connect on generals). The Spirit Evade can can also now be used in midair with either L1 or as an extra somersault, but may trigger automatically with another input under certain conditions as long as one portion of the Spirit Gauge is filled. Musou Attacks now have new finishing animations separate from their Ultimate Musou. Enemy generals still use the older shockwave finishers, and are no longer fully invincible for their durations (they instead are granted Hyper Armor). The "Rage Attack" ("Musou Gokui") is a feature similar to Awakening Musous. Players can use their Spirit Gauge and press R3 to temporarily enter a powerful and invulnerable state when the Spirit Gauge is filled. Once activated, the character's strikes will have a secondary effect. If the player uses their Musou ( ) while in this state, they will end their Rage Mode prematurely and perform their Ultimate Musou. The Rage Attack's ending animation reuses all returning characters' previous Musou Attack finishers. Proficiency levels have been added to all characters' attacks. Each action's effectiveness and strength will increase based on the frequency the player uses them. Proficiency is divided into four major categories located under a character's normal stats: normal attack, charge attacks, special skill, and hyper attack. Resetting character stats to their default state also resets proficiency levels in this entry. The customizable item system returns with a new rare item called "Heirloom". This is a permanent item which can be reused every battle to heal or bolster a character. Each character has their own treasure, and each one can be gained by defeating enemy generals under specific conditions. Armor has been omitted but power-up items can take their place in combat. Weapon forging returns with a system reminiscent to the third title, but the three weapon types introduced in its predecessor (Normal, Power, Speed) have been discarded. Characters can earn multiple copies of the same weapon (or their third for returning characters). They can earn one rare weapon to diversify its base attack and appearance. Weapon attributes are visually categorized by a colored gem and can only be learned by the gem(s) matching its color. Attributes may also be sealed and require the usage of a rare gem earned by completing battle objectives in order to unlock. Characters can donate their weapon attributes to strengthen another character's weaponry. Once the procedure is completed, however, the player will need to reforge the donor's weapon if they wish to reclaim its optimized properties. Players can exchange excess gems in favor of rarer ones to a certain degree. Other details include: *Morale remains an important factor for influencing enemy AI. Enemy morale can be decreased greatly by hunting and defeating the new bannerman units on the field. *Characters have a smoother animation for mounting horses than previous titles. *Edit characters have more customization options and star in their own mode called "Chronicle Mode". *Online co-op is available for all modes. *Data can be transferred and saved between either PlayStation port of the title. Crossplay between the two ports is not supported. *Save data from the Sengoku Musou 2 HD Collection can be used to unlock 10,000 gold in this game. *Downloadable content includes scenarios, costumes, and edit character parts. There are no secondary costumes in the vanilla game; players can only obtain alternates through DLC. Modes Story Mode Story Mode has been changed to be an overview world map of Japan, a la Empires titles. Players can select their preferred scenario through two methods: *'Regional Stories (Chihou)' - focuses on a specific region/clan as opposed to individual characters with in-depth character events and dramatization. Has ten different chapters available. *'Story of Unification (Tenka Toitsu)' - has the entire land as the stage for an overall summary of the land's events. It continues from the introductions in the Chihou scenarios to focus on a detailed end for the era. Clear the Takeda and Oda chapters to unlock the Tenka Toitsu options; finish other stories to unlock the others. The majority of the cast can be unlocked by clearing the stages in each scenario. Certain scenarios have unlockable side stories. Free Mode Similar as previous titles. Edit characters can be used in this mode. Chronicle Mode Known as "Rurou Enbu" in the Japanese version. This mode reenacts Mercenary Mode as seen in other Warriors titles yet borrows traits from the main story mode found in the Chronicle titles. Edit characters act as mercenaries and are given the choice to start under one of the factions mentioned in Story Mode. After their allegiance, they are given the freedom to travel between different provinces of the Warring States to complete various requests focused on the main cast. Different times of day can be seen in this bird's eye view of Japan. One of the main draws of this mode is providing multiple perspectives of the main cast not otherwise seen in Story Mode. Player characters can either befriend or alienate a character of their choice through personal conversations, fighting them in battle, or by traveling with them. The conversations require the player to select between two text options to complete; like the Chronicles games, one response is positive and the other is negative. Their affinity ranking for the player character affects their personal messages during battle. A single member of the main cast is allowed to accompany the player avatar's adventures at any given time. Rare weapons are easier to earn in this mode. Additional edit parts can be earned, although the majority of the sets will be DLC. Characters who don't have much screentime in Story Mode have more time to shine here in side stories. Additional side stories can become available by clearing each chapter in Story Mode. Players must play this mode if they wish to unlock Goemon, Okuni, Musashi and Kojirō. Dojo Edit character creation, officer encyclopedia, gallery mode, game settings, tutorial and Mobile Joy. Stores pre-rendered movies, events, edit characters and downloadable content. Characters Over 50 main characters and over 1,000 named NPCs will be in the title. The new characters from Chronicle 2nd, Goemon, Musashi, Kojirō, and Okuni reuse their designs from their debut or Samurai Warriors 3 respectively. Returning Uzumaki *Yukimura Sanada *Hidekatsu Yuki *Yoshihiro Shimazu *Motochika Chosokabe *Yoshishige Uzumaki *Nanao *Shingen Takeda *Kenshin Uesugi *Kunoichi *Masaoki Chosotobi *Hidemoto Yamamura *Yasutsugu Matsuhara *Ginchiyo Tachibana *Kanetsugu Naoe *Hideyasu Yuki *Musashi Miyamoto *Muneshige Tachibana *Motonari Mori *Yoshihide Uzumaki *Aya *Masakazu Chosotobi *Nobuie Togami Oda *Tadanaga Hanaori *Yoshinari Mori *Yoshimune Maehara *Nobunaga Oda *Tadanobu Hanaori *Mitsuhide Akechi *Hideyoshi Toyotomi *Yoshinobu Shirakawa *No *Hanzo Hattori *Ranmaru Mori *Yoshimoto Imagawa *Tadakatsu Honda *Ina *Ieyasu Tokugawa *Nobutada Oda *Mitsunari Ishida *Nene *Kotaro Fuma *Toshiie Maeda *Tadaoki Hosokawa *Gracia *Nobuhiro Oda *Kojiro Sasaki *Katsuie Shibata *Kiyomasa Kato *Kanbei Kuroda *Kai *Ujiyasu Hojo *Dosan Saito *Hanbei Takenaka *Masanori Fukushima *Nagaie Anezaki *Naotora Ii *Munenori Yagyu *Nagahide Niwa *Tsunaoki Ikeda *Kazumasu Takigawa *Hisahide Matsunaga *Tatsuoki Saito *Lady Hayakawa *Ujimasa Hojo Newcomers